


Always There

by Lady_Phenyx



Series: Fluffvember 2019 [18]
Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Forehead Touching, Found Family, Goodnight Kiss, Multi, Reunited and It Feels So Good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 21:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21483187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Phenyx/pseuds/Lady_Phenyx
Summary: Snufkin is too literal to take things like "I'll always be there for you" seriously.But after all this time, with Moomin and Snorkmaiden standing by him, and reminders from the Moominparents, and a meeting with his birth parents...he just might start to believe they meant it after all.Fluffvember Day 18: “I’ll always be here for you.” | forehead touches/kisses
Relationships: Mumintrollet | Moomintroll/Snorkfröken | The Snork Maiden/Snusmumriken | Snufkin, Springtime Trio
Series: Fluffvember 2019 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533602
Comments: 6
Kudos: 65





	Always There

Snufkin didn't believe in broad, sweeping declarations.

Things like “I'll always be there for you.”

Why should he? He was always on the road, so how could someone always be there for him? They literally could not be, even if he knew people that he'd want to have be there for him, which had been the case until he found his home port in Moomin Valley.

Snorkmaiden believed sweeping statements like that, he knew – but Snorkmaiden had her brother with her her whole life. They may argue and irritate each other (like the time Snork used Snorkmaiden's favorite bowl and best soup pot for his special glue – Snufkin wasn't sure Snork got yet why Snorkmaiden had been so angry. How it hadn't been so much about bowl and pot, but about the disrespect he'd shown her by dismissing her upset and using them for his experiment without thinking – Snufkin didn't really do physical possessions but even he got it) but in the end, they were still always there for each other.

Moomin did as well – he'd always had Moominmamma and Moominpappa there for him, not matter what might happen. They might lose each other during an adventure, but sooner or later they'd all find each other. And sometimes they might need a hint that there was a problem, but they got it, sooner or later.

Snufkin had a feeling Moominpappa had an idea why he wouldn't quite trust those words yet. Until Moominpappa found and created his own family, he'd been in an orphanage and on his own, with no one to count on.

Moominmamma's past was a mystery, and she only told Snufkin bits and pieces, so he wasn't sure.

He knew they meant it when they said such things, but it didn't change his instinctive distrust of the words.

Moomin and the others learned to stop saying things like that and expecting Snufkin to believe it soon enough. He knew they didn't mean anything by it, but, well.

Except that, the more time he spent with them, the less it bothered him.

They learned to express to him in more specifics, and he learned what was behind the words.

So when Moomin and Snorkmaiden came to him, expressing how they wanted to be there for him from now on, to be the people he could come home to, Snufkin found that he believed them.

And even if he couldn't say the words back, since he knew he'd still have to leave in the winter – and how could he always be there for them, when he was physically not there, far away from Moomin Valley – they understood what he meant when he flung his arms around them.

So long as Snufkin was in Moomin Valley, they'd have each other's backs. And, if he was too late after promising to come back, he could count on them to come find him out in the wide world.

He might not have been able to trust the words, but the actions, he could.

\---XXX---

Snufkin had just returned from one of his valley wide wanderings – just in time as a massive storm rumbled on the horizon, and he prudently took refuge in Moomin House.

He still didn't believe in “I'll always be there for you,” but he was certainly starting to believe that the Moominparents would be there when he needed them so long as he was in the valley as they proved again with their actions.

He was urged into the house before he could hit the veranda, and he and Moomin were fed and talked with long into the night.

It was too late to think about dealing with the clean up of his tent after such a storm (and, while the worst of it was over, it was still miserable out) so Snufkin let himself be tugged up to sleep with Moomin.

It wasn't anything they hadn't done a hundred times before, but it felt like more, now that everything was out in the open.

Snufkin was on the very verge of sleep when he heard the door open. He laid in bed, too warm and comfortable to move, finding he trusted these people and this house too much to worry about someone else being in the room.

He cracked a sleepy eye open to see Moominmamma brushing a good night kiss over Moomin's forehead, and smiled sleepily.

A moment later he felt her snout brush his forehead, her paw run over his hair.

He feel asleep still smiling, his paw in Moomin's, wrapped in warmth and love and feeling the brush of his first good night kiss on his forehead.

\---XXX---

Snufkin was being his usual stoic self, but the grip he had on Moomin and Snorkmaiden's hands, along with the way his tail thrashed behind them, gave him away.

According to Moominpappa, Snufkin and Sniff's parents were coming today, to finally meet them.

Their parents hadn't been there for them...and today, they were going to find out why.

Sniff hadn't stopped talking yet, but it was going over most of their heads.

Sniff had been found early on by the Moomins and cared for. Snufkin had been on his own. He had, most of them felt, a bit more reason to be nervous than Sniff.

“They're here! They're here!” Sniff cried, flying out the door.

Snufkin stood, Moomin and Snorkmaiden standing along with him, watching as the small mumrik slipped through the door nervously.

He and Snufkin stared at each other, eyes wide, struck speechless as their eyes devoured each other.

Joxter moved, a half step forward, reaching for Snufkin, who broke.

And flew into Joxter's arms, nearly knocking Joxter over with the force of the impact.

Joxter squeezed tight, almost as if he were afraid Snufkin would disappear if he let go, almost too tight, but Snufkin was holding just as tightly to him.

Eventually Snufkin felt Joxter start to pull back from the hug and let go – a little reluctantly to his own surprise, but knowing far too well what it was like to be touched when you'd had enough.

He wasn't expecting Joxter's paw to slide into his hair, cupping the back of his head, as the other touched his cheek. Snufkin looked up at Joxter, not quite understanding, when Joxter stared into his eyes and made a soft sound that was half laugh, half sob, before he closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Snufkin's.

Was this a mumrik thing? It had to be a mumrik thing, he'd never seen Mymble or Little My do it...Snufkin's eyes slid closed as he breathed in, feeling Joxter's breath as he was sure Joxter could smell his. Snufkin's paw slowly raised to cover the paw on his cheek, his heart so full it might burst

It wasn't a hug, but it felt just as warm and comforting. Joxter began to purr and an answering purr rose in Snufkin's chest.

Snufkin cracked his eyes open to look up at his father. Joxter seemed to sense it, as his own opened a moment later to blink slowly at Snufkin.

Snufkin's breath caught in his throat and her pressed back against his father's forehead, closing his eyes again, overwhelmed at the unconditional love he'd seen shining through his father's eyes.

His mother's arms encircled them a moment later, lifting them both off the ground with ease as she laughed joyously.

Mymblemamma was, Snufkin was quickly learning, A Lot.

And he wanted to get to know her as well, really, it was just...after he was finally released and watching the way her children ran amuck, he had a feeling that even if things had worked out, he still would have left while he was young. Maybe following after his father, maybe with him, maybe on his own, but one way or another, there was no way he would have managed in the Horde.

A glance in Joxter and Little My's direction showed they had already come to the same conclusion.

Joxter was still glancing at both of them, and Little My glared back before rolling her eyes and climbing into his lap.

She grabbed his hair and yanked his head down. It was more of a headbutt than a forehead touch, given the force of the impact, the way the sound that it made echoed around the room, and the way Joxter's tail shot up like an exclamation point, but she held the contact until Joxter's paws came up to touch her, and she still held onto his hair.

“Just don't go disappearing on us for years on end again,” she grumbled. “We'll hunt you down next time. Or do, I think I'd enjoy that.”

Joxter let out another of the half-laughs. “Now that I've found all of you again, I don't plan on disappearing again,” he said. “Just don't go doing the same to me yourselves a second time, either.”

Little My finally let go of his hair, appeased, and Moominmamma brushed aside the hair to get a look at the bruise Little My had left, nuzzling a forehead kiss against it.

Joxter reached up a gentle paw to touch her snout, and they laughed softly together.

Moominmamma glanced down at Little My, still in Joxter's lap, and Little My crossed her arms. “I still wanna know what happened,” she grumbled. “Where've you been? You said you were coming back.”

“I didn't know Snufkin existed until I got Moominpappa's letter. Your mother needs to learn how to share,” Joxter said lightly, glancing over at Mymblemamma. “I got caught up in first one thing, then another. It's a long, complicated story. By the time I got free of it all and found my way back, the house was gone. So I should be asking you, Little Mymble, where all of you have been. But you're not getting rid of me this time. I'm going to be here for you from now on,” he said, glancing up at Snufkin as he said it.

And this time, Snufkin found he believed it.


End file.
